Metaphors, Roles, and Controls in Framing Studies

Paul Thibodeau, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA

Stephen Flusberg, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, New York, United States of America

Abstract

Metaphors have been shown to be effective explanatory and
communicative tools, shaping how people think and reason about complex domains.
To date, however, most studies have addressed only coarse-grained effects of
metaphor framing, leaving many questions unanswered about the relative power of
metaphor compared to more literal linguistic framing devices. We addressed this
issue in a large, pre-registered framing study, comparing the effects of
describing the role of police officers as (a) metaphorical guardians of a
community (b) literal protectors of a community, and (c) a no-label control. We
found no main effect of framing condition, suggesting that positively valenced
metaphors may exert little influence on their own in this domain. However, we did
observe an interaction between condition and political ideology, such that the
guardian metaphor was especially effective at improving attitudes towards police
officers for liberals, whose initial approval ratings were relatively low.